Shahid Khaqan terms smart lockdown ridiculous, meaningless

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Senior Vice President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said the world will get rid coronavirus and attain normalcy sooner or later, but Pakistan will have to face difficulties in connecting to the world afterwards due to lack of any strategy to deal with the pandemic. Talking to The News, the former prime minister said the term that has been coined by the federal government of ‘smart lockdown’ is ridiculous and meaningless since it has no practical connotation. He said either there should be lockdown or no lockdown. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that coronavirus penetrated in Pakistan after one month of its breakout in the United States and some European countries where it has been creating havoc in the following weeks. He said the governments in these countries were confused and failed in acting promptly. “Now the people are facing consequences of non-seriousness of their governments. Keeping their experiences in view, the administration in Pakistan shouldn’t take any risk as miscalculations could prove very expensive to the nation,” he said. Shahid Khaqan said the rulers are doing errors of calculations or they are under some illusion as they are issuing advices, but taking no tangible action to deal with the upcoming situation. He was of the view that once the world is open and it cannot be predicted with fair amount of certainty that Pakistan will also be free of the virus due to the reason that the government isn’t following what the international fraternity is asking for in dealing with the pandemic. “It could cause dissatisfaction of the world community,” Abbasi said. The PML-N leader impressed upon the need to work in line with the world opinion and guidance of the international bodies concerned. The former prime minister said the government has made the country a laughing stock in the eyes of world opinion as the whole world is fighting with the pandemic but the government in Pakistan has locked its horns with the opposition and its critics. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that it’s most unfortunate that the country is being run by the people who lack prudence and wisdom to tackle any difficult situation when there was need of sensible hands to run the affairs of the country. He advised the prime minister to concentrate on thinking and seeking advice from the people of intellect instead of speaking aimlessly. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi reminded that the people are not following instructions of the government in any field since they have no faith in it.